A Thousand Stars - part one
by Prue
Summary: A portrayal of the Xena/Ares relationship in modern-day New Jersey.


A thousand stars  
By Prue  
  
Part One - Fall at your feet

**About this story **- Okay, it doesn't seem like a Xena fanfiction, but what I'm trying to do is use modern characters (sorta like their descendants) to portray the Xena/Ares relationship. Think of it as a Xena/Dawson's Creek or Xena/SVH senioryear crossover.   
**Disclaimer** - The characters in this story are based on characters from the hit TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess". I don't remember exactly who DOES own them, but it sure as hell isn't me. Please don't sue me, I'm only fourteen.   
I do not have the rights to:  
Xena, Gabrielle, Ares or any other X:WP characters mentioned.  
Giovanni's Pizza Place  
I do have the rights to:  
Prue Weller High (named after myself - aren't I conceited?)  
**Feedback **- All praise, constructive criticism and death threats can be sent to [prue@xenafan.com][1]  
  
CHARACTERS:  
Isabel - Xena  
Ashley - Gabrielle  
Michael - Ares  
Sean - Joxer  
Skye - Ephiny  
Miranda - Discord  
Jolie - Callisto  
Troy - Toris  
Lucas - Lyceus  
  
_"I don't like you, don't compromise  
Shattered by your weakness  
Shattered by your smile  
And I'm not very fond of you, and your lies  
Shattered by your weakness  
Shattered by your smile"_  
- "Shattered", The Cranberries  
  
  
"Pssst! Isabel!" Ashley Wilson leaned back in her seat to face her best friend,  
Isabel Carter.  
"Yeah?" Isabel mumbled, her eyes half closed. Their physics teacher, Mr. Harper,  
had been talking about anodes and cathodes for the past hour, and Isabel was  
having a hard time staying awake. Snapping back to reality, she opened the note  
Ashley had just given her.  
  
There's gonna be a new guy in homeroom tomorrow. Skye says he's cute!  
  
Isabel rolled her eyes. It was the fifth time this year that Ashley had told her  
there was going to be a cute new guy in their homeroom, and after about the  
third time, she'd learned not to trust everything that came out of her friend's  
mouth. Skye Davidson, another of Ashley's friends, was a total gossip, though it  
seemed that most of her rumours originated inside her head and got passed on  
to Ashley.  
  
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU.   
  
Isabel scrawled back in large letters. Pretending to drop her pencil, Ashley took  
the signal to receive the note. One minute later, another sheet of notebook  
paper landed in her lap.  
  
We're not kidding this time! She saw him with Dr. Foggarty!  
  
Dr. Foggarty was the principal of Prue Weller High, and Isabel thought she was a  
fairly decent principal at that. Upon reading Ashley's latest note, her interest was  
piqued.  
  
How do you know he's a senior?  
  
"Duh!" Ashley whispered, leaning back in her chair, dangerously teetering on the  
two back legs. "He looks, like, at least twenty-five!"  
"Well in that case he's probably the father of some freshman kid!" Isabel  
whispered back, a beautiful smile lighting her face. Ashley felt her irritation melt  
at that smile. Isabel was beautiful. Tall and slender with long dark hair and  
ice-blue eyes, at least half the senior guys at Prue Weller High had been nagging  
at her for dates since freshman year. _Damn_, she thought to herself. _I should  
have made her a cheerleader.  
_  
Suddenly lost in a combination of triple herkies (and a hot sweaty football team),  
Ashley lost her balance on her chair. The two back legs gave way beneath her  
and she fell crashing to the ground.  
"Ash!" Isabel cried, rushing to her friend's side. Ashley sat in the middle of the  
floor, devastatedly looking around at the faces that surrounded her. Suddenly  
she burst into a fit of giggles.  
"You hurt?" Isabel asked, raising one eyebrow in that way that only Isabel could.  
"Only my pride." Ashley answered, wincing as she stood up. "You think anyone  
saw?"  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Walking to Giovanni's, a pizza parlour across the road from the school, Ashley  
began chatting a million miles an hour with Skye, the co-captain of the  
cheerleading squad. Ashley didn't mind having to share her position. She and  
Skye were very close, and though they often argued about cheerleading  
responsibilities, the two remained good friends. Still babbling, Ashley felt two  
arms circle her waist.  
"Sean?" she asked. Sweet and funny, Sean Damon had been her boyfriend since  
junior high, and it was so secret that he simply adored her.  
"You're all going to lunch without me?" Sean said with mock hurt.  
"Uh-huh!" Ashley replied smiling. "Don't worry," she whispered into his ear.  
"Secret girls stuff."  
"All right." he groaned, taking the hint. "I'll be back with all my football buddies  
if you're looking for me." He blew Ashley a kiss before running away. Sean  
wasn't a footballer. He didn't even come close! But his father was the coach and  
his twin brother Shane was on the team, so Sean felt it was his duty to help out  
at games and training sessions. None the less, he'd made lots of friends with the  
no-neck crowd.  
"So anyway," Ashley started up again. "About the new guy..."  
"He's so hot!" Skye squealed. Isabel rolled her eyes. She was getting sick of  
hearing how cute the new student was, and she knew it wasn't good for her  
image to get too excited. After all, if she knew her friends, this was just a cruel  
joke that they were playing on her. As they finally reached the restaurant, Isabel  
breathed in a sigh of relief (and the aroma of greasy pizza).  
"What do you want on your third?" she asked Ashley.  
"Everything you're having." Ashley replied immediately. "And those little  
mushrooms. Double cheese. Extra bacon-bits. Do they have seafood toppings  
here?" Isabel tried to fight back the breakfast that was rising in her throat.  
"I'll just have pepperoni." Skye said.  
"All right." she said sighing. "Go find a table." Looking around, she laid eyes on  
one of the most gorgeous guys she'd ever seen. One muscular arm was linked  
around the waist of a dark-haired, dark-eyed girl; the other in the pocket of his  
tight Levi's. His almost-black hair was cropped short, and a three-day growth  
was evident around his chin and sides of his face. For a moment he turned  
around and stared at her, his intense brown eyes boring into her blue ones.  
Embarrassed, she turned away and collected their lunch.  
"Okay guys." she said as she set the pizza on to the table and slid into the  
booth. "One third supreme, one third pepperoni, and one third Ashley's special."  
Turning to face her best friend, she received a glare, though a playful smile lit  
her lips. Suddenly, Ashley seemed to remember what she and Skye had been  
talking about.  
"So, about the new guy..."  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
_Where am I? Isabel thought frantically. What is happening to me? All around her,  
she could feel wetness. A thin white dress was slipping off her shoulders and her  
dark hair was damp and hanging around her face. Purple lightening flashed in  
the sky and she screamed. Suddenly she held a single pink rose, the rough  
thorns scratching at her fingertips. As the blood trickled down her hands, a voice  
whispered to her, "It's all because I love you..."_  
And then she woke up.  
"Izzy! Wake up!" an bubbly voice called out cheerfully. The blinds were yanked  
open and harsh sunlight flowed into her room.  
"Ashley?" she asked in confusion. "What are you doing here? Who let you in?"  
"Lucas did." Ashley replied, referring to Isabel's sophomore brother. She tossed  
the blankets off her friend's bed. "Since Jolie got busted with booze on campus,  
we're having weekly locker inspections. You've gotta help me clean mine out."  
"Why Ash? Something you're hiding?" Isabel asked, grinning. She threw her long  
tanned legs over the side of the bed, and promptly planted her foot on an empty  
soda bottle.  
"Well if your locker looks anything like your bedroom, I'm guessing you'll have to  
clean yours too." Ashley said, her turn to be sarcastic.  
"Fine, fine." Isabel grumbled. "Toss me a shirt." Ashley walked across the room  
and picked up a green V-neck shirt from the floor and threw it at her friend.  
"A clean one, doofus."  
"You should have said so." Ashley said, pulling a pale blue three-quarter top  
from the wardrobe.  
"Normally I would, but you see, I'm still asleep because one of my annoyingly  
perky friends has walked into my room at seven in the morning and practically  
forced me out of bed." Isabel replied, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn, just  
to prove her point. Ashley tried not to stare as Isabel stripped away the  
oversized t-shirt she'd worn to bed, and put on the top she'd just given her. She  
walked over to her desk and put on the black skirt that had been strewn over her  
snake light. Quickly running a brush through her silky black hair, she turned  
around to face her friend.  
"You look great." Ashley said, before she even had a chance to open her mouth.  
"Let's go. I'm driving." Alarm was visible across Isabel's face. It had taken Ashley  
three tries to finally get her licence, and Isabel still wasn't sure how she did it.  
"Don't worry." Ashley said. "I'll be careful."  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"You call this careful!" Isabel yelled as Ashley swerved her red 1973 porsche  
away from the curb they'd almost run into.  
"Did you want me to run over that cat?" Ashley yelled back.  
"Cats have got nine lives! We've only got one!" And it we won't even have one  
life if Ashley keeps driving like this! Isabel thought.  
"Well sor-ree! But I don't see you offering to take over!"  
"Fine then! I will!" Ashley spun the car around to the curb in front of a bus stop.  
The two girls stepped out of the car, and Isabel slid into the driver's seat.  
"Ready?" she asked. The motor sputtered for a while, then leaped into gear.  
Suddenly Ashley screamed. "It's the cops! We gotta get outta here!" Isabel  
stepped on the accelerator, and the car spun around crazily. Looking into the  
rear-vision mirror, she saw the police car coming up alongside them.  
"Uh oh..." she said as one of the officers signalled for them to pull over. The two  
girls groaned as the police car pulled up behind them and two officers got out.  
"Please step out of the car ladies." one officer said, a handsome blond-haired  
man in his mid-twenties.  
"Glady." Ashley giggled. Isabel shot her a warning look.  
"You realize that you're 15 miles over the speed limit." he stated as his partner  
jotted down their registration number.  
"Yes." Isabel sighed. She didn't like where this was going.  
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to fine you ladies." the handsome officer continued.  
Ashley just nodded her head as he handed her a ticket.  
"Drive careful girls." the second officer said, as he and his partner got into the  
car again and drove away.  
"How much is it for?" Isabel asked. Ashley gave a nervous giggle.  
"Uh, Izzy? You've got some money I can borrow, don't you?"  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
By the time they got to school, homeroom was just beginning.  
"I've gotta run to the library." Isabel said to her friend. "Make sure Mr. Harvey  
knows I'm here."  
"But you'll miss the new guy!" Ashley whined.  
"And...? Look, I have to go. I'll see you in the caf." Isabel replied, running down  
the hallway at lightening speed. Alone, Ashley returned to her locker. Grabbing  
her backpack and a few textbooks, she walked into homeroom, a sullen  
expression on her face.  
"Well, look who finally decided to come out of hiding." their homeroom teacher  
said sarcastically. "Did you bring your little friend with you?"  
"Isabel?" she asked. "Nah. She's got more important things to do." Mr. Harvey  
shot her a warning glance.  
"I'm kidding!" she replied. "She just went to the library." Mr. Harvey nodded his  
head.  
"Today," he began. "We have a new student in our class, Michael  
Bowman-Flavell."_ Hmmm... _Ashley thought. _What did that_ Seventeen _article say  
about hypenated surnames? Either very wealthy or very intelligent._ She smiled  
to herself.  
"I trust that you will all do your best to make Michael welcome at our school."  
Mr. Harvey continued. You bet we will! Ashley thought.  
"Are there any volunteers to show Michael around the school this morning?"  
Ashley's hand shot up.  
"Very well." Mr. Harvey said dryly. He turned to Michael. "This is Ashley Wilson, she's going to show you around today." Michael turned around to face Ashley,  
and gave her a smile. Ashley thought she would melt. Facing her was the single  
most gorgeous guy she'd ever seen. Tall, athletic build, dark cropped hair, deep  
brown eyes. Ashely's eyes travelled over his form-fitting jeans and pale blue  
Oxford shirt. And he knows how to dress too! Finally, Ashley managed to smile  
back. Michael gave her a small wave and sat down again.  
"Now that that's settled..." Mr. Harvey continued. Thankfully, the bell rang right  
on time. As the other students rushed out of the classroom, Ashley stayed  
behind to wait for Michael.  
"Ready?" she asked him.  
"Sure thing babe." he replied. Leading him to a long hall of lockers, Ashley  
pointed to the one marked 241.  
"This is your locker for the next semester." she told him. "The combination code  
is 18-445-67. If it ever gets stuck, which it probably will at least twice a week,  
the janitor's room is just down there." she said, pointing down the hall.  
"Where's yours?" he asked her as she dumped a huge pile of textbooks on to the  
top shelf.  
"Just down there." she replied. "229." Ashley punched in her combination and  
the locker swung open. Michael peered inside.  
"Who's the babe?" he asked, pointing at a snapshot labled "Me and Isabel", taken  
the summer before their senior year.  
"Are you always this nosy?" she asked him.  
"Are you always this paranoid?" he asked back, grinning. "I was just asking. It's  
Isabel, right? She's cute." Ashley smiled in return, an idea coming to mind.  
"Feel like setting me up with her?" Michael asked. An incredulous look flickered  
across Ashley's face. How had he known what she was thinking?  
"Hey," he continued defensively. "It was just a suggestion!"  
"I'll see what I can do about it." Ashley replied, a wicked grin spreading across  
her face. "You just never know."  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
An hour and a half later, Ashley walked into the noisy cafeteria, Michael in stride  
beside her.  
"Did you want to sit with us?" she asked, as they walked towards the lunch line,  
inspecting each of the deadly dishes. Gray meatloaf. Brownish-yellow spaghetti.  
A slimy green salad which had probably been sitting there since 1962. Didn't the  
cafeteria cooks read those _Safety in the workplace_ pamphlets?  
"Is the food here always this bad?" Michael asked, wrinkling his nose. Ashley  
tried not to focus on how cute he was when he did that.  
"It's usually worse." she replied, dumping a plate of meatloaf on her plate, along  
with an apple, a coke and two slices of cheesecake. "You should learn to bring  
your lunch from home."  
Suddenly a voice interupted from behind her. "How are they trying to poison us  
today?" Isabel asked dryly. Michael turned around and gave her a wide smile.  
"Isabel." he said, a charming smile spreading across his face. "I see we finally  
meet. The snapshot in Ashley's locker hardly does you justice." He reached out  
to kiss her hand, but she pulled it away, giving him a funny look.  
"Ash? Can I have a word?" she asked. Ashley nodded her head and followed  
Isabel to their regular table, Michael still with them. "In private?" she said,  
motioning for him to leave. Michael grinned and headed towards the lunch line  
again.  
"Yeah?" Ashley asked once they were out of earshot.  
"I'm getting some really freaky deja vu here." Isabel said. "I know I've seen this  
guy before.  
"You probably have." Ashley replied reasonably. "Carrington isn't exactly a big  
city."  
"Still," Isabel argued. "It's weird...it's almost like we're spiritually connected or  
something." She groaned. "That sounds really stupid, doesn't it?" Ashley nodded  
her head.  
"Don't worry Iz." she said reassuringly. "It's probably just your raging  
hormones." She winked at her friend and burst into giggles.  
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Isabel asked, raising one eyebrow.  
"Besides, he's not that cute." she lied.  
"Now I'm worried." Ashley said. "The hottest guy we've ever seen is interested in  
you, and you don't even think he's cute? Maybe I should take you to an  
optometrist. Or a good shrink." she added. Isabel glared at her.  
"Come on." Ashley said, pulling her by the arm. "Give him a chance. You never  
know - he could be the one."  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Ashley Wilson  
Either Isabel has lost her mind or she's suffering from sporadic blindness. Whatever it  
is, it's preventing her from seeing the obvious: Michael is HOT! On fire, practically. I  
don't know what Izzy's problem is. Almost every guy at school would kill to go out with  
her, and she won't even give them a second glance. I've heard of being picky, but this is  
ridiculous! There's only one thing for me to do: I have to set them up together. I don't  
know how, but I will. By the end of the year, those two will have "class couple" in the  
bag. Michael and Isabel are just meant to be together. Trust me, I know these things.  
  
Isabel Carter  
Giovanni's. That's where I saw Michael before. He and his girlfriend (note the term)  
were there the other day at lunchtime. I can't believe it. Michael has a girlfriend. Don't  
get me wrong, it's not like I actually care, but it's kinda disgusting to have a guy  
throwing himself at you all day when you've just discovered that he probably intends to  
cheat on his girlfriend (if he hasn't already). This guy is a total jerk. Trust me, I know  
these things.  
  
Michael Bowman-Flavell  
Isabel. What a beautiful name. I can't help it: I want her. And not entirely in that way  
either. Do you know how tempting it was today, just to reach out and touch her face, or  
run my fingers through her hair? In one word: very. I almost did, you know (though I'm  
sure either she or Ashley would have given me a good slap across the face if I'd given  
into temptation). And then I thought about Miranda. She'd have me drawn and quartered  
if I ever snuck around behind her back (and it's not like she wouldn't find out either).  
Trust me, I know these things.  
  
  
  
Continued in part 2 - ["Animal Instinct"][2]

   [1]: mailto:prue@xenafan.com
   [2]: http://www.envy.nu/prue/1000stars/part2.html



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